Don't Let What Happened To Amway, Happen To Your Business

[Kurt]

When the "American Way" was founded in 1959, it was a pure concept ~
offer the highest quality products direct to the consumer and let them
sell those products directly to other consumers allowing them to share
in the revenues that normally went to the middle man.

Network marketing, also known as MLM, is an ingenious idea that still
makes sense to this day. That's why network marketing continues to be
called "the poor man's franchise" but it's also created an environment
where the new under-educated person entering business can be
mislead..

As the "American Way" progressed, the company name was shortened to
"Amway" and it was a success, but then something happened that
suffocate their dream.

This is the very short story of how the name Amway got such a bad name
with the general public.

The short answer is, the so-called "tool business". In 1982, Rich
DeVos, a co-founder of Amway, pulled the leading distributors together
and gave a speech called "Directly Speaking" which set off a fire
storm. You can still find this speech on YouTube and you'll find it
very educational should you have an interest in it.

Had he stuck to his guns, I believe that Amway would be a worldwide
success doing over $100B in sales rather than the $8B it does today.
History and rumors abound as to why his warnings were not heeded, but
the fact is that his warnings were ignored and it's not only retarded
Amway's success but it's the leading contributor to the bad name Amway
has with the general public to this day.

The groups of distributors who started and ran their tool businesses
alongside their Amway businesses caused their focus to be on
recruiting people so they could sell more tapes, conferences, meeting
tickets, etc. instead of on moving product volume.

The story is a long and winding one, but the end result is that the
openess of the internet has slowly allowed the sunshine of truth into
this debacle. There is a need for education, and that part of the
"tool business" was and still is valid, but the hidden agendas and
immoral tactics are dieing out.

No longer can the so-called "Big Boys" trick and pressure people into
the Amway business so they could sell their tools. Amway, looked at
on it's own, is a simple and honest business plan. Unfortunately for
Amway and those who tried to build an honest business, the average
victim of the "tool business" tactics associated the two businesses
into one lump business in their minds, and that one bad business
became known as "Amway" and it was said with a certain negative,
musical snarl.

In short, the educational "tool business" and Amway became lumped into
one bad nightmare known as "Aaaaammm - waaaaay!"

So, competitors and detractors kept talking about the Amway business
as a scam.

There are many details in the middle of this story that are left out,
for example, in the late 1970's Amway was investigated by the FTC and
although exonerated, it took a few years to happen and that also hurt
the company image. Yet to this day, it's grown despite all of these
and many other issues.

The positive in all this to realize is that is illustrates and proves
just what a good business concept that metwork marketing is.

Buying products from a company that cuts out the middle man and
instead allows it's customers to share in the revenue is why it works.

And, to Amway's credit, they have always offered their 100% money-back
guarantee because their goal was to make the best products on the
planet.

Although their popularity as a business opportunity tended to take a
turn for the worse until lately, no one could argue with the quality
of the products they manufactured. Their cleaning products,
nutritional supplements and cosmetic line were some of the best in the
entire world, and people would put up with lengthy back orders and
delays to get their products.

At one point, Amway was only one of three companies who made lipstick,
private labeling its own product to name brand cosmetic firms the
world over.

Today, a new generation of Amway IBOs are springing up. Customers can
now get their own website from an IBO (Independent Business Owner) and
place their own orders directly from the company. The IBO is there to
help them, not sell them anything, so the pressures is gone.

There still are those who cling to the past, and it will take time for
them to disappear from the market place, but that's what is so cool
about free enterprise. It will eliminate them because the customer
doesn't want that behavior.

And it's a better day for today's Amway IBO as well. The old
"distributors" as they were called then, were at the mercy of their
uplines because products came from them, not the company. There were
some good aspects to that old hands on relationship, but it was abused
by some uplines who used their personalities and charms to coerce
people into buying more "tools" than they needed.

Knowing some of the history of Amway will help you succeed in whatever
business you're building, and as Amway's new advertising campaign
says, "And now you know".

Kurt